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I began photographing dead deer because I found myself fascinated by the terrible beauty they represent. I have always been interested in photographing subjects that are outside of our traditional expectations beauty – what might be referred to as abject beauty. The animals I photograph have been killed by cars and present themselves as unresolved narratives. The images explore the environment where the animals met their deaths. Like memorials set at the side of the road to mark the site of traffic accidents, the presence of the deer scar the landscape. Likewise, the photographs become memorials to the creatures, frozen in their deaths.
Removed from the landscape to the gallery the images are presented as near life-sized glicée prints on canvas. They become at once horrible and beautiful. Like vanitas paintings, the reality and sensual beauty of the images is intensified - a contradiction to the tragedy represented, a reminder of the brevity of existence.
Ultimately, the deer become metaphor for our society's troubled relationship to the natural world while simultaneously echoing world events. The images portray vulnerability and conflict; the deer are caught between the quiet with which they rest and the violence with which they died.

http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=40672

http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=16881

Photographer

Road work: Deer Project at the Tweed Museum of Art
Fort Centennial installation view
Recent Invitations to Religion installation view
Hwy 2, Wisconsin, Smith Road #2
Road Work Installation detail
53 South, Wisconsin, Hwy 2 Turnoff #1
53 South, Wisconsin, Hwy 2 Turnoff #2
53 South, Wisconsin, Weigh Station Entrance
53 S, Wisconsin, Superior Ciy Limits
Hwy 13, Wisconsin, South Shore Farmstead
Knife River Beach #1
Knife River #2
53 South, Wisconsin, Hwy 2 Turnoff, #3
Arrowhead and Cramer, Duluth
Soap Factory installation view 1
Soap factory installation view 2
Soap factory installation view 3
Fort Centennial #217 (Battery Quarles to Ash)
Fort Centennial #233 (Battery Commander Position, Battery Ash)
Fort Centennial #291 (Battery Tolles, Gun Emplacement B)
Fort Centennial #303 (Battery Tolles, Gun Emplacement A)
Fort Centennial #347 (Searchlight Tower)
Fort Centennial #384 (Radio Station)
Fort Centennial #386 (Old National Guard Store House)
Fort Centennial #441 (Underground Radar)
Fort Centennial #482 (Radar for Tolles B)
Fort Centennial #490 (Battery Randol, Interior)
Fort Centennial #495 (Battery Benson, Interior)
Fort Centennial #503 (Battery Ash, Ammunition storage)
Fort Centennial #511 (Battery Benson, Battery Commander Position)
Brugge, 1998
Venice
Ringstrasse, Frankfurt
Side Street, Budapest
Czesky Krumlov Castle, Czech
Dirt, Castle Hill, Buda
Electrical Box, Brugge
Parliament, Wein
St Sebastian Street, Pest
Feet in Fountain, Rome